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Is science an adaptive system?
Author(s) -
Jones Warren T.,
Chiaraviglio Lucio
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 0005-7940
DOI - 10.1002/bs.3830240505
Subject(s) - replication (statistics) , phenomenon , relation (database) , replicate , recombination , biology , evolutionary biology , cognitive science , computer science , epistemology , cognitive psychology , psychology , genetics , philosophy , gene , mathematics , virology , statistics , database
This paper investigates the hypothesis that there are properties of published scientific monographs which, relative to the citing relations, are found to replicate and recombine in a fashion that is formally identical to the replication and recombination of genetic markers of many viral systems. The research clearly demonstrates that it is possible to carry out the replication recombinatorial analysis within the setting of the published literature of science. The analysis was performed under the restrictive hypothesis that replication and recombination occur relative to the referencing relation. The referencing phenomenon is taken as a recognition of behavioral phenotypes expressed in the monographs. While the results reported are far from being decisive in favor of the hypothesis, they are encouraging and suggest this hypothesis.